Assimilation in the Phonology of a Libyan Arabic Dialect: A Constraint-Based Approach

Much attention has recently been paid to Arabic phonology, especioally suprasegmental phonology. However, most of the studies conducted on Libyan Arabic use either structural or derivational (rule-based) approaches. This book is, therefore, the first one dealing with the segmental phonology of a Libyan Arabic dialect within an Optimality Theoretic frmework. In this work, many assimilatory processes are analyzed using the relevant OT constraints and accounting for their ranking. The book should be of interest to Arabists, phonologists, and students of linguistics in general.